Grapple



H. C. THAYER, JR

GRAPPLE Filed July 11. 1955 Sept. 9, 1958 III III]

United States Patent Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., aI

corporation of New York Application July 11, 1955, Serial No. 520,964

1 Claim. (Cl. 294-104) This invention relates to grapples and moreparticularly to a grapple for ingots and the like.

An object of the invention is to provide a grapple having a movable jawand a force multiplying linkage for actuating the jaw to tightly grip apart in the grapple.

Another object of the invention is to provide an asymmetric grapple forgripping parts and permitting stacking of the parts in close relation toeach other.

A further object of the invention is to provide a safety grapple fortightly gripping a part and having an asym metric construction forreducing the possibility of accidental release of the part duringlifting.

A device illustrating certainfeatures of the invention may include ahorizontally disposed arm engageable With the top of the ingot to belifted and having a depending jaw at one end thereof engageable with oneside of the ingot. An upright first lever is pivotally connectedintermediate its ends to an intermediate portion of the arm with thelower end of the lever forming a second jaw engageable with the otherside of the ingot to be lifted to clamp it against said first jaw. Asecond lever connected at one end to the other end of the arm isconnected at its other end to means for raising and lowering thegrapple, andthe second lever is pivotally connected adjacent the arm toone end of a link, the other end of which is connected to the upper endof the first lever in a manner to actuate the first lever with amultiplication of leverage to cause the second jaw to tightly grip theingot against the first jaw as the second lever is actuated and thegrapple is raised. A handle is fixed to said other end of the arm toenable the operator to move and guide the grapple laterally as it israised and lowered.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent byreference to the following detailed description and the accompanyingdrawings illustrating a preferred embodiment thereof, in which Fig. l isa side View of the grapple showing it in closed position in full linesgripping an ingot between its jaws and showing it in open position indotted lines;

Fig. 2 is a front view of the grapple; and

Fig. 3 is a plan sectional view of the grapple taken along the line 33of Fig. l.

The present grapple it was devised for lifting ingots 11 of cast metalof rectangular cross section and of considerable weight and comprises acomposite arm 12 having a horizontal portion 13 adapted to rest on theupper face of the ingot 11. The composite arm 12 comprises a pair ofparallel spaced apart flat bars 16 welded intermediate their ends to aspacer 17 and at one end to a jaw 19. The jaw 19 extends downwardly fromthe end of the arm 12 and has a hardened wear plate 20 welded theretoand engageable with one side of the ingot 11. The left end porticn ofthe bars 1611s sloped upwardly as seen in Fig. 1 to provide clearancetherebelow for ingots or other objects and a stiffening plate 22 iswelded to the bottom thereof.

A relatively short lever 25 disposed upright between 2,851,300 PatentedSept. .9, 1958 the bars 16 is pivotally connected to the arm 12 by a pin26 which passes. through aligned apertures in the lever and the bars 16and is secured against axial displacement by cotter pins 27. The lowerend of the lever 25 forms a movable jaw 28 and has a wear plate 29engageable with the other side of the ingot 11 for clamping the ingot 11against the first jaw 19. The upper end of the lever 25 is connected toone end of a pair of links 33 by a pin 34 which fits in alignedapertures in the links and lover, and the other ends of the links 33 arepivotally connected to an actuating lever 36 by a pin 37 passing throughaligned apertures in the links and lever. The lower end of the actuatinglever 36 fits between the ends of the bars 16 of the arm 12 and ispivotally connected thereto by a pin 39, and at its other end the lever36 is pivotally connected to a clevis 40 by a pin 41, by means of whichthe grapple is connected to a cable 42 of a hoist for raising andlowering the grapple.

In response to turning movement of the actuating lever 36 about thepivot pin 39, the lever 25 and the movable jaw 28 may be actuated fromits open position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 to its closed positionshown in full lines therein to securely clamp the ingot against the jaw19 and permit the grapple 10 and the ingot 11 to be raised. Frominspection of Fig. 1, it will be seen that the lever 25 is provided witha long lever arm above the pivot pin 26 and that the pivot connection 37of the links 33 on the actuating lever 36 is adjacent the pivot 39leaving a long lever arm above the pivot 37 whereby force applied by thehoist to the free end of the actuating lever 36 is multiplied many timesby the lever system to enable the movable jaw 28 to apply a much greaterforce against the ingot 11 to securely clamp it against the jaw 19 whenthe ingot is being lifted by the grapple.

To aid in the lateral movement and positioning of the grapple inapplying the grapple to or in removing the grapple from an ingot, ahandle 45 is secured to the inclined end of the arm 12. The handle is inthe form of a rod bent into a rectangular loop with the ends of the rodwelded to end portions of the bars 16 of the arm 12.

When it is desired to transfer an ingot 11 from one position to anotherthe operator grasps the handle and moves the grapple and the hoist toposition the grapple over the ingot after which the grapple is loweredonto the ingot, and when the lever 36 is lowered suificient to open themovable jaw, the grapple is positioned on the ingot as shown in Fig. 1.The hoist may then be raised to swing the actuating lever about thepivot pin 39 and actuate the lever 25 to cause the movable jaw 28 tosecurely clamp the ingot 11 against the jaw 19, after which continuedmovement of the cable 42 will raise the grapple 10 and the ingot 11therein.

The asymmetric arrangement of the components of the grapple achievesseveral desirable advantages in addition to the multiplication ofleverage for the movable jaw 28. With the handle 45 and the levers andlinkage disposed on the operators side of the grapple, the jaw 19 is theonly part that extends on one side of the ingot 11 held in the grappleso that the grapple and the ingot therein may be moved into closeproximity to other objects or stacks of ingots to deposit or pick up aningot adjacent thereto. Also, there is no possibility of the ingot beingaccidentally released to fall from the grapple during the lifting of theingot as a result of accidental engagement and actuation of theactuating lever 36 by an object in its path as the grapple is beingraised since the actuating lever is supported from the cable and extendstoward the operator and does not extend from the cable 42 in a directionaway from the operator where it could be engaged and accidentallyactuated to release the ingot by a part of a machine or other objectwhich might happen to be in its path of upward movement.

It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are simplyillustrative of the application of the principles of this invention.Numerous other arrangements may be readily devised by those skilled inthe art which will embody the principles of the invention and fallwithin the spirit and scope thereof.

What is claimed is:

A grapple for ingots of predetermined rectangular cross sectioncomprising an arm having a substantially horizontally disposed portionengageable with the top of an ingot and having an inclined portion toprovide clearance for ingots adjacent to the one being lifted, a firstjaw depending from one end of said arm on the horizontal portion thereofand provided with a substantially vertically disposed flat faceengageable with one side of the ingot, an upright first lever pivotallyconnected to the arm intermediate its ends and in a predetermined spacedrelation to the first jaw and having a second jaw disposed below saidarm and provided with a substantially flat face engageable with theopposite side of the ingot, a second lever having a lower end thereofpivotally connected to the other end of the arm, a connector elementpivotally attached to the upper end of the second lever and connectibleto means for suspending the grapple, and a link pivotally connected tothe upper end of the first lever and to an intermediate portion of thesecond lever for actuating the second jaw to clamp the ingot against thefirst 4 jaw in response to upward movement of the said upper end of thesecond lever, the levers and the links being disposed on one side of avertical plane substantially midway between the jaws and with the saidupper end of said second lever disposed above the jaws and insubstantial alignment with said plane when the grapple is being raisedwith an ingot clamped therein, the pivotal connection of the link to thesecond lever being closer to the lower end thereof than to said upperend and the distance between the pivotal connections of the arm and thelink to the second lever being less than the distance between thepivotal connections of the arm and the link to the first lever to obtaina multiplication of force on the jaws, and the arrangement of thecomponents of the grapple being such that the arm and jaws of thegrapple are maintained in substantially horizontal and verticalpositions, respectively, when an ingot is being held therein to hold theingot at all times in a horizontal position.

References Cited in the file of this patent.

UNITED STATES PATENTS

